Tasman Glacier and Tasman Lake

Haupapa/Tasman Glacier, which DOC calls New Zealand’s longest glacier, is about 22 to 23.5 km long and lies in the Tasman Valley of Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The quickest way to see it is the Tasman Glacier View Track: 1.5 km and 30 minutes return, up more than 300 steps to a moraine viewpoint over Tasman Lake. The car park is free and 10 minutes’ drive from Aoraki/Mount Cook Village. To get closer, a boat tour crosses the lake among icebergs.

The lake is new. DOC says Tasman Lake did not exist until 1974, and it is growing as the glacier melts.

How long is the Tasman Glacier?

Sources disagree, partly because the glacier keeps shrinking. DOC calls it New Zealand’s longest glacier and gives “about 22 km” in its walking tracks brochure and 23 km on its Tasman Lake and River Track page. Wikipedia gives 23.5 km. Older Te Ara figures of 27 to 29 km describe the glacier before it retreated. DOC’s brochure says it is now retreating by more than 100 m a year.

So “about 22 to 23.5 km” is the honest answer. For how it compares with Franz Josef and Fox, see the New Zealand glaciers guide.

Walks in the Tasman Valley

All three walks leave from the same car park. Checked November 2026:

Walk	Distance and time	What you see
Tasman Glacier View Track	1.5 km, 30 min return; 300+ steps	Tasman Lake, the glacier at the lake’s far end, Aoraki/Mount Cook on a clear day
Blue Lakes side trip	500 m, 5 min one way from the main track	Small lakes, now green and rain-fed
Tasman Lake and River Track	About 2.6 km, 50 min return; about 86 m up and down	The lake shore, icebergs in summer, a branch to the source of the Tasman River

All three are graded easy to intermediate by DOC. DOC’s brochure gives the View Track as 40 minutes return with 100 m of height gain, so allow a little longer than the page’s 30 minutes if you stop for photos.

Tasman Glacier View Track. Climb steps for 10 minutes and the first Blue Lake appears on your left. Another 5 minutes takes you to the viewpoint on top of a wall of glacial debris (moraine). From there you look across Tasman Lake to the snout of the glacier at its far end, with Aoraki/Mount Cook and the main range behind. There is a bench on the way up but no seating at the lookout.

Blue Lakes. DOC says these small lakes were once the blue of glacial meltwater. They are now fed by rain and look green. Rifleman, New Zealand’s smallest bird, is sometimes seen here.

Tasman Lake and River Track. This is the one to pick if steps are hard for anyone in your group. It runs through the old terminal moraines, the rock walls that mark where the glacier ended when the lake started to form, down to the lake. Icebergs usually float on the lake in summer, and it freezes over in winter.

Tasman Lake boat tours (Glacier Explorers)

Tasman Lake is now big enough for commercial boat and kayak trips, according to DOC. One is Glacier Explorers, run by The Hermitage hotel. Its own site calls it “New Zealand’s only glacier boat tour”. Checked November 2026:

• Adults (15+) from NZ$219, children 4 to 14 from NZ$99, family pass (two adults and two children) from NZ$576.
• About 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours in total, with about an hour on the lake.
• Check in at the Activities Centre on the ground floor of The Hermitage 30 minutes before departure. A bus takes you to the Blue Lakes car park, then you walk 1.5 km (about 25 minutes) to the jetty and back.
• Minimum age 4. Everyone must manage the walk in about 25 minutes.
• Now open year-round, the operator says. Trips can be cancelled for weather, with another time or a full refund offered.
• Iceberg numbers vary with how active the glacier is, and the operator does not guarantee them.

To get onto the ice itself, a guided heli-hike flies from Mount Cook to a remote part of the Tasman Glacier for up to two hours on foot, and a 45-minute combination flight uses a ski plane and a helicopter with a landing on the glacier. Both are listed below. For more flights, see Mount Cook scenic flights.

Getting there and parking

From Aoraki/Mount Cook Village, drive out on SH80 towards Twizel. Tasman Valley Road is the second turn on the left, after Hooker Valley Road. Cross the one-way bridge and follow the road about 7 km to the car park at the end. DOC times the drive at 10 minutes from the village, 50 minutes from Twizel and 1 hour 30 minutes from Tekapo.

Parking at the Tasman Valley car park was free for cars and campervans when checked in November 2026. It is not one of DOC’s paid sites, but DOC said it would name more paid car parks from mid-November 2026, so check before you go. The car park is very busy from November to April. If it is full, DOC says to park along Tasman Valley Road with care.

What is there:

• Toilets, but they close in winter and may be shut in summer when water runs short. The nearest accessible toilets are at the visitor centre in the village.
• Picnic tables and a day shelter.
• No drinking water, no rubbish bins and no mobile coverage.

Safety

DOC warns that Tasman Lake and the moraine walls around it have serious hazards. Stay out of the water, which is typically about 3 °C. Do not walk on the lake when it is frozen, as the ice can be thin, and do not climb icebergs, which can tip without warning. The black berries of tutu, a native shrub here, are poisonous in summer. Kea are protected; do not feed them. Drones are not allowed in the national park.

Nearby

The Hooker Valley Track and Kea Point Track start from White Horse Hill, on the other side of the village. Both give views of Aoraki from a different valley. For the whole park, see the Aoraki/Mount Cook guide, and for beds within 10 minutes of the car park, the Mount Cook accommodation guide.